It's the last full day of prep here at home and, as usual, there are a lot of plates spinning in the air as I rush to wrap things up before departing for Texas tour.

Above, you'll see the diagnostic for Imua's generator, which indicated I'd be better off just buying a new one. The cost of repair would be $2004.28 while the cost of replacement, which includes a 2-year/2,000 hour warranty, is $3,777.88, so that's kind of a no-brainer. The 2008 Onan 4000 has already been uninstalled and I'm just waiting to hear from them when the new replacement arrives.

The timing is going to be tricky.

I need to leave Orlando by 3:30 pm in order to reach Homosassa for the Friday night show. It's then 90 minutes north to Cedar Key for Saturday's gig with a jog all the way across the state on Sunday for a private concert for a patron in Atlantic Beach. I've then got three travel days to get into Texas where I've got four gigs but also time in-between scheduled with friends and folks.

Cummins said if it comes in today, it'll be 2 pm, which would be ready for a morning install. If it comes tomorrow, it depends on the arrival time and if I'm cutting it too close, I'll need to track back to Orlando on Monday after the trio of Florida shows, do the install, then turn around and get northbound for Interstate 10. Somewhere in the next couple of days, I've got to schedule an oil change, preferably with my mechanic, but can't really make an appointment until I know what's up with the gennie. It'll work out how it needs to, just like it usually does if I don't sweat it.

With my increased production schedule, it's long been the plan to get a dedicated external drive for tour data and arriving today is the LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C 5TB Portable Hard Drive ($249.94), built to withstand bumps, shocks, moisture and dirt while working in the field (sometimes literally.)

I've got an 8 TB external drive that has survived numerous tours alongside the new 16 TB drive for storing audio and video data. It'll be nice to leave those two drives at home (and backed-up to cloud storage) where they won't be subject to the bumps and shudders of the road. This tank is drop-tested to 5' and can withstand being run over by a 1-ton vehicle. My conditions won't approach a fraction of that intensity, but it's nice to know!

I'm currently editing the finale of "Dulcimerica" 384, which will debut to the public on April 6th. It brought a smile to my face, reliving some of these wonderful moments at the 6th Annual Florida Gulf Coast Dulcimer Retreat and the Homosassa Castaway Cruise! We'realready hashing out details for next year.

While I'm driving through Texas, I'll be listening to all five hours of "The Improv Files" to decide which tracks will make the album. If you're a Turquoise Level patron and have your favorites, be sure to make note of those. I'll be posting something regarding the track listing for that project soon! This month's tracks will be recorded somewhere in the Lone Star State.

I just want to thank all of you patrons for becoming a part of my art, each and every day. All around, it's been very inspiring, challenging and the chance of a lifetime to have this kind of opportunity to share what I do on a daily basis. Your faith in what I do helps me to do even better, so thank you for what you give!

For those who don't have the Patreon app (iOS | Android), it has some enhanced capabilities that extend your experience on my Patreon Channel. Live chats, notifications and Lens, which is a quick photo and video window into my world, plus instant access to content from your mobile device. I'm really going to be using Lens to showcase some of the locations over the next few weeks. They're showing up at the top of the posts page, so that's another way of catching them. They're supposed to disappear after 24 hours, but you can save them by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. Ain't technology somethin'? It's so "Star Trek."

Thanks again, everyone, see you in a little bit!

Bing

P.S. At the top of the main channel, you'll see the options to view "overview", "posts" or "community." The overview is the whole introduction to my Patreon Channel, including the intro video. Once you've read it, you get it, so use the "posts" link to focus only on what I've posted lately. "Community" is where you can post pictures, ask questions and get answers in a public forum. See you in one of those two places!